Day 49

March 12, 2019 – at Sea

Today I confirmed our activity in Darwin with the third party tour company I used. We will be back in plenty of time to board the ship. ( I’m a bit more worried about this since our experience going to the reef)

We arrive in Darwin on Thursday.

Today we cruised through the Torres Strait. It is the area between Australia and Papua New Guinea. This is an important passage through the Great Barrier Reef. The depth ranges from 7 to 15 m. Very shallow in shipping terms. There are two routes through the straits. One for small craft and one for larger ships. A maximum static draft of 12.2 m or less must be maintained. The water is vey calm here and we are going very slow through it. Ian was on the PA system beginning at 8am and described some of things we passed. This is very important area in terms of Australian defense. The reef can bar entry to an opposing navy.

Lecture time is also muffin time. Torre Strait muffins were served on deck with coffee or juice. They taste very similar to the Panama Canal and Pitcairn Island muffins.

We joined Bob and Brenda again. This time we talked about border security in Yuma, Arizona/ Mexico and Detroit, Michigan /Canada. The backups seemed a little worse in Yuma but there were lots of similarities.

Tonight was the Under the Sea Gala. My lovely date!

Backgammon was the game of the evening. Cut throat as usual.